Prefabricated fence



D. H. CALDWELL ET AL PREF'ABRICATED FENCE Filed April 28, 1958 March 20, 1962 United States Patent O 3,025,955 PREFABRICATED FENCE Douglas H. Caldwell and Howard A. Godecke, Sacramento, and Theodore Voorhees, Gualala, Calif., assignors to Caldwell Lumber Sales, Sacramento, Calif.

Filed Apr. 23, 1953, Ser. No. 731,246 1 Claim. (Cl. 206--46) This invention relates to prefabricated fences and particularly to a prefabricated fence in which all of the components are dimensioned to enable them to be packaged in a bundle of uniform contour containing all of the necessary elements for the construction of a single fence unit which may be combined with like units to provide a fence of any desired length.

It is desirable in the building of a wooden fence by persons unskilled in carpentry that the several pieces be cut to size for ready assembly without sawing or trimming. It is also less costly to do the necessary cutting of lumber in a mill with power machinery and in large quantities. Furthermore the packaging of fence lumber in compact units of uniform size represents considerable saving in the cost of shipment of the lumber and in reducing waste for the consumer.

It is, therefore, the object of this invention to provide a fence that meets all of the above desirable requirements, which is easily assembled and erected by unskilled labor and the parts of which are adapted to be contained in packages of simple rectangular cross section with each package containing all of the elements necessary for a given unit length of fence.

The manner in which these objects and advantages are accomplished and in which the invention is carried into practice is set forth in the following specification wherein reference is made to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. l is a view in elevation of a single fence unit which embodies the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view in end elevation of the elements of the fence unit shown in FIG. 1 arranged in a stack of rectangular cross section for bundling; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the same elements in a bundle.

It is generally Well known that practice in the lumber industry is to employ nominal sizes for boards presumably based upon the cross sectional size of the first rough cut piece before shrinkage, and before planing in the case of surfaced lumber. Thus so-called 2 x 4s, 1 x lOs, etc. actually measure considerably less than 2 inches by 4 inches and l inch by 10 inches as their names imply. Furthermore, the reduction in size is not proportional so that for example the width of two 2 x 4s does not necessarily equal that of one 1 x 8 and the stacking or bundling of pieces of miscellaneous size to produce a bundle of uniform rectangular cross section is impossible.

The present invention comprises the creation of a fence design of uniform units having pleasing appearance and sturdy functional qualities with each unit made up of several pieces of substantially the same length but of different cross-sectional dimensions which enable them to be stacked in a uniform rectangle. The several pieces are also so designed that they may be assembled into fence units which are interlocking and self-sustaining without the use of nails or other fastening means though a few nails are recommended for permanent fence installations.

Referring first to FIG. l of the drawing, a typical unit of fence embodying the present invention is shown and will, for convenience, be described in the nominal terms employed for lumber sizes. The fence unit comprises a 4 x 4 post 10, two 2 x 4 rails 11, seven 1 X 8 panels 12, and top and bottom l x l trim pieces 13 and 14, respectively. The lengths of all of the pieces are sub- ICC stantially equal and in the present instance for convenience and good design they are all 8 feet long with the exception of the rails 11 which for reasons that will presently appear are one inch shorter.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the several elements of the fence unit shown in FIG. 1 are shown stacked for bundling. The nominal sizes referred to have, however, been modified to ser-ve two ends, the first being to provide a fence of pleasing proportions the overall size being about six feet high and eight feet long for each unit. The second purpose of the modified size being to enable the arrangement of the pieces in a uniform rectangle as shown in FIG. 2.

The actual cross sectional sizes for the example shown in FIGS. l and 2 are as follows. The post 10 is 3% inches by 35/8 inches, the rails 11 are 1% inches by 35/8 inches, the panel members 12 are inch by 7% inches and the trim members 13 are 4% inch by 8% inches.

The bundling of the stack shown in \FIG. 2 is accomplished, as shown in FIG. 3 by employing two or more steel bands 15 which tightly encircle the stack with heavy cardboard strips 16 underlying them to protect the wood from the steel.-

To provide for an interlocking self-supporting assembly, grooves are provided in opposite sides of each post 10, as indicated at 18 in FIG. 2, and similar grooves shown at 19 are provided in opposite sides of the rails 11 being the top and bottom sides when the rails are in assembled position. All of the grooves 18 and 19 are approximately 1/2 inch deep and are sufficiently wide to slidably receive the panel members 12 and trim members 13 and 14.

To assemble a fence unit from the contents of the bundle shown in FIG. 3, the steel straps are first cut and one end of the post 10 is inserted in a post hole, a series of which may have been prepared at approximately eight foot intervals. The post from a second bundle is then inserted in the next adjacent hole in the position illustrated at 10a in dotted lines in FIG. l and the remaining members in the first bundle are inserted between the posts in the order shown starting first with the bottom trim 14 and ending with the top trim 13. The trim boards and the panel members 12 slide downwardly in the grooves 18 formed in the posts and the rails 1\1 abut the posts but receive the trim boards 13 and 14 and the panels 12 n their grooves 19. It is because of this abutting relationship of the rails 11 that they are formed one inch shorter than the trim boards and panel boards. With this assembly and with the posts 10 supported in any conventional manner such as by filling the post holes with earth or concrete, the entire fence unit is self-supporting by the interlocking relationship of its several parts. However, it is recommended that at least the rails 11 be secured as by toe nailing to the posts 10 to insure more rigid and permanent assembly. Subsequent units are assembled in the same manner until the desired length of fence is entirely constructed and additional posts 10 are made available by the merchant who sells the fence in bundles, in order to terminate the fence or provide openings for gates or the like.

The panel members 12 are preferably tongued and grooved at their edges or provided as shown in FIG. 2 with points 20 on one edge and V grooves 21 on their opposite edge which nest in the manner of tongues `and grooves and when the several panels are assembled, they produce a panel unit substantially four feet high by eight feet long. Consequently a slightly different design of fence may be constructed by sawing each of the members 112 exactly in half and placing them on end between the rails 11 to alter the appearance of the completed unit. It is also possible, of course, to saw the top edge of the trim member 13 to produce any desirable curved of shorter boards for different styles of fence which represents a saving in material because it utilizes short ends of lumber that are otherwise not readily saleable. The

' last referred to modification also results in a rectangular bundle as might be seen from FIG. 2 Where the elimination of the members 13 and 14 does not result in irregularity.

Since the bundle of elements for each fence unit is of uniform rectangular cross section With no voids of substantial size the boards are not crushed Or deformed by pressure of the steel bands which surround them. The bundles may also be eciently handled and transported as 'compared to loose lumber of random lengths and cross section and this results from the particular design which takes into consideration the appearance of the fence and the compact uniform bundling.

We claim:

A bundle of prefabricated fence parts capable of assembly into a fence unit comprising a plurality of panels superimposed to form a stack, a square end post one half the width of said panels and two rails one half the cross section of the end post all disposed on top of the tack side by side with the rails on edge, a top trim piece and a bottom trim piece of a width equal to the height or" the stack formed by the combined panels, end post and rails and disposed on edge against opposite sides the last mentioned stack, all of said fence parts being of substantially equal length to form a compact uniform rectangular arrangement, and binding means surrounding and holding together the parts so arranged.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,766,317 Wheless June 24, 1930 1,829,366 Mittleburg Oct. 27, 1931 1,849,412 Strong Mar. 15, 1932 2,245,826 Rowe June 17, 1941 2,656,040 Pope Oct. 20, 1953 2,670,075 Wilson Feb. 23, 1954 2,723,107 Parker Nov. 8, 1955 

